Komen Foundation Reverses Decision to End Grants to Planned Parenthood

Friday, February 03, 2012

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced on Friday that they have reversed their decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.

Komen was the target of widespread outrage in the news media and through social media leading many to cry foul that the organization was succumbing to right-leaning political influences in lieu of support for their mission to improve women’s health.

In a statement on its website, CEO Nancy Brinker apologized and said the she was "distressed" by the presumption that the decision to halt funding to Planned Parenthood was for political reasons.

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives," Brinker said in a statement.

Brinker asked everyone who has “participated in this conversation” to move past this issue.

“We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics,” wrote Brinker.

The news comes just a day after New York Mayor Michael Blomberg made a $250,000 matching grant donation to Planned Parenthood to help defray some of the money lost from the withdrawn Komen grants.

Bloomberg welcomed Komen's reversal and said both organizations can get on with their work. "Bottom line is Planned Parenthood will continue to give mammograms, they'll have some more money to do all of the different things that they to do, and the Susan Komen foundation I'm sure will continue to advance cancer research," he said.

Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $650,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.

According to Planned Parenthood, its health centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.

Komen is based in Dallas and was founded in 1982. The organization has invested more than $1.9 billion since then in research, health services and advocacy while becoming the largest breast-cancer charity in the nation. It runs Race for the Cure fundraising events across the globe.

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Comments [14]

NER: Right on! It is heartening to see that the people stood up to protest this abomination by an organization that purports to be helping women. Who could justify making free cancer screenings dependent on some administrator's political/religious agenda? they are only trying to destroy planned parenthood as a step toward reversing all legislation supporting women's rights that has been in place for the past 40 years. We have to be vigilant to make sure they never get their way.

SGK has NOT reversed their decision. Please, do some analytics in your news reporting!

SGK says now it “will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

They already said three days ago that it wouldn't affect current grants. That's not a change.

What do you think "eligibility" means? It means they're going to wait for the furor to die down. There is ZERO commitment from SGK to actually CONTINUE to support PP.

Planned Parenthood doesn't even provide mammograms. Just one of many misconceptions that PP spreads to paint themselves as the savior of low income women. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq0kBkUZbvQ

Perhaps all should take a closer look at Planned Parenthood before you come to it's defense. It has a seriously spotty track record that the public should be aware of.

I look at every organization, corporation, business, political party, etc with a critical eye. Do not blindly support, know what you are supporting. Always look at information on both sides of any subject, don't ignore or dismiss the opposing viewpoint because it puts what you support in a bad light.

The Red Ribbon was never intended to be commercialized. It is too bad that Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to take that symbol, convert it to their cause and capitalize upon it. No surprise that they are Texas based.

So will we stop buying the pink boxes of cheez wiz now? We need a new model to fight cancer. And AIDS. I'd say let's give socialism a try.

From a PR perspective, they did the right thing -- they apologized and reversed course as fast as they could. They just put a tourniquet on the wound and pulled it tight.

The details are not as clear -- it will take time to see if Komen really does maintain funding and support of Planned Parenthood. Remember that Komen has lots of Right to Life organizations that were pushing them equally as strongly into making this decision.

In this respect, recent moves have done serious long term damage to the Komen brand. Like many of my friends, I will be donating to Planned Parenthood directly and not to Komen.

In addition, Komen has a thousand corporate partners -- KFC, Microsoft, New Balance, and more. And NONE of these consumer brands want to stand anywhere near an abortion fistfight. And none of those partners will like what just happened. Even with this reversal, I will not be patronizing Komen's partners until they sever their ties to what is now revealed to be an organization full of Republicans with strong political motives.

I don't see any way out of this without the resignations of the Executive Director and Board Chairman of Komen.

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